The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

love carrie for all the reasons the lovers have cited

can't remember where I heard this anecdote, but remember in the olden days when ppl would line up outside the theater waiting for the previous viewing to end, usually for popular films? for carrie, these waiting customers would hear the audience let out a collective blood curdling scream seconds before pouring out looking shellshocked, leaving the next audience wondering "what the hell am I getting myself into?"

"Zombies may walk like they have TWO LEFT FEET but, of course, one of them is YOURS!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7213/7261591806_a5e76c63ec_o.gif

09. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
George A. Romero, USA, 1968
(961 points, 27 votes)

So, if all movies are dreams, then horror movies are nightmares. To quote George Romero: "You use horror to show the world being turned upside down." Based on that theory, it is my opinion that the horror genre is easily the most brutally misused of all movie genres. A good horror film can force you to face your repressed fears and desires head-on, and that is a very valuable experience. I don't feel that monsters NEED to correlate with any major historical event, but it does help. The original Night of the Living Dead, for example, plays off the chaos and paranoia of its time period (racism, gangs, rebellion, Vietnam).
― Anthony (Anthony F), Monday, March 22, 2004 8:23 PM (8 years ago)

I do often get "they're all going to laugh at you, they're all going to laugh at you" stuck in my head on rotating loop. Scarred for life, I tell you.

"They're all going to laugh at you!"

Oh yay, glad to see this place after discussion upthread. We shouldn't have doubted.

i can't think of eight horror movies better than NOTLD

One extra vote placed it ahead of Carrie despite zero first place votes. Interesting.

This (and Twilight Zone) is what started it all for me.

Unlike what I said about Carnival of Souls and Blair Witch (ie, their brilliance is partially due to accidental blundering by lucky amateurs), I feel like Romero & crew knew exactly what they were up to here and just motherfucking knocked it out of the park.

Is that a gay pride button on PJ Soles' hat?

I used to wonder that too, but apparently the rainbow as a gay pride symbol didn't even start for another few years after that.

I never saw NOTLD until I was well into my 30s. After I did I don't know how I lived without it.

Eric H, greatly appreciate all the work you're putting into this

rainbows were popular in the 70s guys

xp

yes, e.g.

http://assets.flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/mork_mindy.jpg

http://uashome.alaska.edu/~dfgriffin/website/godspell.jpg

woah i was definitely expecting that to be higher

also eric that might be my favorite cryptkeeper line yet

Especially for its time, NOTLD breaks rules right & left: The hero does everything right and dies anyway. The asshole who complains that the basement is the only safe place is ultimately proven correct. The black guy is better than the white guys. The catatonic girl never breaks from her catatonia. The brother eats the sister. The mom eats the daughter.

i know that this is not a very popular opinion around here but the fact that the wicker man is beating some of these is really astonishing to me.

oh God, we can't even keep Robin Williams offa the horror thread!

(joke)

Great! Brilliantly elliptical on Vietnam and race, surreal, intense, audacious.

Wicker Man is more like a comedy to me

The asshole who complains that the basement is the only safe place is ultimately proven correct.

Well, yes, but no.

watching the zombies chowing down on dead person innards irrevocably scarred me as a young 'un.

i mean, i went vegetarian for a week b/c of that scene ... it didn't take long-term, but still!

had Night at 17th.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/26/58045295_2d6042628e.jpg

This was my Halloween costume c. 2005.

goddamn I love NOTLD so much. It's just so freaking GREAT, and nothing is wasted and that it was made when it was made for the budget it was made it's just, fuckin god bless human creativity right?? I rewatched it recently and honestly I think I walked away liking it EVEN more than I did to begin with.

and the Night of the Living Bread short is hilar

carl agatha you are my hero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktD27xVIncg

After decades of seeing this on TV, VHS, and DVD, I finally got to see a pristine 35mm film print a few years back and wowza. It's a gorgeous film. I haven't seen the subsequent Romeros on the big screen (There's Always Vanilla, Season of the Witch, The Crazies) but I can't imagine they look this good, probably bc low-budget sometimes can look classier in black-and-white.

xpost it's stuff like that that makes me say college film students rule! (and then there's all the shitty stuff that makes me want to stab myself in the eye but let's pretend those don't exist for a moment)

nowadays ppl seem more inclined to discuss the meritrs of dawn or day, so I'm suprised and pleased to see NotLD place so high. like a lot of other horror franchises, ubiquity and over familiarity have dulled its impact, and I don't think very many ppl *love* it (note no #1 votes). explains why it's nowhere to be found on my ballot.

but it's one of the first widely successful horror movies that just *went* for it, in all directions - with gore, with taboo smashing, with race, with its coldblooded nihilism. I'd go so far as to say it's the first modern horror film, and romero made it all palpatable by wrapping it in familiar howard hawkesque trappings. except this hearty adventure story ends with the precious child cargo stabbing mommmy to death and eating daddy, and the leader of our intrepid band killed by the good guys and roasting on a funeral pyre. it's an early example of what I love about modern horror, the terror not just of events unfolding on a screen, but of whose hands you've put yourself in trust of. how far are these people going to go? oh my god! they went there! ah! ahhhh! noooooooooo

a million xps

hate to say it but Crazies remake >>>> original Crazies.

I don't care what kind of crap Romero does anymore, because honestly, NOTLA and Dawn give him carte blanche to whatever the fuck he wants for the rest of his life. Those two movies are almost perfect to me.

Ben Hervey's book on NOTLD is one of my very favorite BFI monographs.

man i love how horror movies trick people into saying stuff like "that one character didn't deserve to die in a telekinetic bloodbath"

hate to say it but Crazies remake >>>> original Crazies.

otm

The denouement of this being told with grainy, documentary-style stills is absolutely brilliant. After what you've been through, seeing it all in motion would just be a bridge too far.

xp
hate to say it but Crazies remake >>>> original Crazies.

Really? Hmmmm. Must watch. OG Crazies very flawed but compellingly watchable.

Helps to have a Tim Olyphant crush, mind.

Am I the only person here who watched that insane 30th anniversary DVD where co-writer Russo went back in and inserted new scenes? Mostly to add backstory for the first zombie, add gore scenes from the oft-mentioned Beakman's Diner, and add a quasi-religious epilogue. It was hahahahahhahahahhahahahahahaha NO.

rainbows were popular in the 70s guys

So were gay people.

Didn't Betty Buckley do a bunch of successful Lloyd Webber horseshit on stage?

Forgot about Cats (which always makes me think of Paul Newman on Letterman: "Where the hell's the singin' cats?").

I think that's the saddest thing to me about NOTLA, is that it wound up in public domain because as Romero put it (iirc), hell they were students, they didn't know any better.

But at the same time, it's kind of gratifying that despite all the horrible things that have been done to that poor movie, all the iterations with color and updates and alternative endings and remakes all just serve to remind everyone how great the original truly is. It's unfuckwithable.

goddammit this thing should be #1

Duane Jones should have become a star.

Night obviously owes a lot to The Birds, though I think it's a much better film.

the best remake of night of the living dead is called assault on precinct 13

Ah yeah, but the public domain thing did lead to NOTLD: Re-animated, which I thought was a pretty cool and fun project.

I know I'm opening myself up to ridicule ("They're all going to laugh at you!"), but I thought Signs was an honorable addition to the Birds/Night tradition of assault-on-the-home horror films.

noooo, Assault on Precinct 13 is a mediocre remake of Rio Bravo

I would agree you until the last third xpost

There's a shit-ass documentary called Fan of the Dead that it, you know, shit-ass, but it does go to all the original NOTLD locations, and it's kinda fun to see how the basement looks now, the cemetery, the house location, etc.